Cupid Wings

23. Friends

There was a tap on his door and Harry opened it to let Luna and Nev into his rooms. It was with a repeat of that same pang of guilt that he acknowledged how much time he'd spent with Draco at the neglect of his friends and he was glad they were all going out.

'Are we taking the Floo to Hogsmeade?' Luna said dreamily. 'I know you're meant to be resting your ankle.'

Harry smiled and wondered how Luna knew these things, it wasn't as if he'd shared the news in the staff room beyond the common acceptance of 'Harry's chair' and footstool. Though he was, he admitted to himself, leaning on his cane more heavily than usual, without the Rano Potion, his energy levels were definitely affected, or maybe it was Severus's new potion. Either way, he felt frustrated by the whole affair.

'Yeah, when the others are ready, we'll Floo to Aberforth's. We're meeting Ron and Hermione at the restaurant.'

'Are you going to tell us what going on, Harry,' Neville said. 'Snape was in the greenhouses after all sorts of rare ingredients for some potion. He wouldn't say what but I could tell it was for you.'

Harry shrugged, unwilling to pull more attention to himself. 'Later...' he muttered.

'Is he really coming tonight? That man still petrifies me,' Neville grimaced. 'It's hard to reconcile the friendship you two have after our past. I know he tries to be nice to me these days but it's clear he's just persevering me and thinks I'm a bumbling idiot.'

'You're not a bumbling idiot, Nev, and Severus knows it. He said to me that in all his years at Hogwarts there's never been such a knowledgeable and natural Herbology professor.' Admittedly, there had been a sneer on Sev's face but Harry thought it was more to do with begrudgingly acknowledging he'd been wrong in his assessment of Neville rather than stating his admiration.

'I think Severus is rather funny,' declared Luna. 'And very cuddly.'

Neville choked on his own breath.

Harry smirked as he patted Nev on the back. He knew Sev's opinion of Luna's proclivity to skip over and give him 'cuddles' in the staffroom which he said left him feeling like he's just flushed his eyeballs with a confusing mix of moon dust and daisy petals. He found it perplexing, especially as he did his best to emit vibes that he wasn't a tactile person. But, it seemed, Luna was impervious to Sev's natural ability to frighten away even a beetle that crawled too close. Severus also found it uncomfortable that Luna was, after all, some twenty-one years younger than him and without Harry's benefit of familial relationship, he didn't feel it was appropriate; some might leap to the wrong conclusion. Still, she'd fling her arms around his waist and give him a squeeze and tell him his hair looked particularly shiny that day or that she loved how he smelt of boomslang and peppermint. Then she'd flitter away to talk to Flitwick about how the latest alignment of Jupiter with the moon affected Summoning Charms because of the disrupted pull of magnetic forces or some such...

'Some people like older men,' Harry had teased.

'I'm old enough to be her grandfather,' Severus huffed.

'No you're not, don't exaggerate. Besides, as wizards live far longer than muggles, the age gap isn't so bad.'

Sev had shuddered. 'I still remember her as an eleven-year-old and the Sorting Hat falling over her eyes. She tipped her head up to look up into the inside the hat and said "hello, I like your voice, it's a very wise sort of voice, like Wol, he's an owl, you know..." Imagine saying that to one of the oldest, most complex artifacts in the Wizarding World, the voice of the four founders, no less. Of course, you missed that because you were too busy crashing an illegal flying car into the school's very valuable Whomping Willow.'